Driving was hard, you don’t realise what’s involved in in doing it. It looks easy but when it’s broken down into each section, it’s hard – control the wheel, brake and accelerator, have to put on blinkers, wipers, AC, looking out for cars, hazards, pedestrians.

That’s what I struggled with, dealing with all that at once and processing it all at the same time.

Matt B, 25

Click on Our Stories on the right hand side of the page or click here for more personal stories about learning to drive.

Julia is a driving instructor and services the South Sydney area. She has more than twenty years' experience with teaching people how to drive, and spent the last ten years specialising in teaching people on the autism spectrum.

Safer Divers Course

This is a day long course with classroom and practical elements in NSW.

Driving and Aspergers

Autistic Driving School

This BBC series about Julia Malkin, who has autism and is a driving instructor. She teaches many learners who are on the spectrum.

Learning to drive

In all states and territories, legislation requires a driver to advise their driver licensing authority of any long-term or permanent injury or illness that may affect their safe driving ability.”

Austroad

Helping your teenagers or young adult decide whether they can learn to drive is one of the big issues that parents face in the transition years.

We can’t make any general statement regarding the capacity of individuals with autism in relation to learning to drive.

Some people with autism are capable of driving, some are not and some would be capable of driving but for various reasons choose not to.

Any decision regarding driving ability needs to be based on the individual’s abilities in specific skills related to driving.

Possible problems for those with autism when driving:

Motor coordination and planning difficulties

Attention modulation difficulties

Insistence on sameness or limited flexibility

Emotional dysregulation e.g. heightened anxiety

Limited ability to anticipate the actions and intentions of other drivers

Perceptual differences such as excessive attention to details rather than broader contextual factors

Driving was hard, you don’t realise what’s involved in in doing it. It looks easy but when it’s broken down into each section, it’s hard – control the wheel, brake and accelerator, have to put on blinkers, wipers, AC, looking out for cars, hazards, pedestrians.

That’s what I struggled with, dealing with all that at once and processing it all at the same time.

Matt B, 25

What Does The Research Tell Us:

It is limited, there are only a handful of studies:

One study of adult drivers (Daly et al, 2014) found that adult drivers with autism

Obtained their licences later

More likely to rate themselves as “poor drivers”

More likely to place restrictions on their driving e.g. avoiding traffic, night driving and highways.

The majority of parents rated single skills such as maintaining lane position, turning, speech control,
braking and use of turn signals as “not difficult to teach”

However, a majority of parents rated complex skills such as awareness of traffic (55%) and multi-tasking (65%) as
very difficult to teach

This same set of parents stated that the most helpful strategies included practice and repetition, teaching skills in small steps, providing verbal or visual scripts prior to starting out on a drive and being calm and patient

The least helpful strategy was showing emotionality such as raising their voice, getting upset or cringing and talking too much.

Tips For Parents

Your GP may require an individualised assessment from a driver trained assessor

Alternatively, you may opt to arrange for this kind of assessment yourself if you or your child are unsure about potential driving ability

Break down skills into small steps and teach to mastery – lots of repetition and practice

It may take longer to teach a person with autism to drive

Some people with autism may not be ready to learn to drive until they are somewhat older than their peers

Remain calm or utilise a professional driver trainer

Talk through or role play possible social situations related to driving e.g. what to do if pulled over by police, what to do in the event of an accident

Directly teach some of the non-verbal communication and other signals associated with driving e.g. drivers using flashing of lights to get your attention, hand signals or flashing lights to indicate that they are letting you in

Talk aloud as you are driving, explain what is happening on the road and what you are thinking and how you are planning ahead.

Learning to drive

In all states and territories, legislation requires a driver to advise their driver licensing authority of any long-term or permanent injury or illness that may affect their safe driving ability.”

Austroad

Helping your teenagers or young adult decide whether they can learn to drive is one of the big issues that parents face in the transition years.

We can’t make any general statement regarding the capacity of individuals with autism in relation to learning to drive.

Some people with autism are capable of driving, some are not and some would be capable of driving but for various reasons choose not to.

Any decision regarding driving ability needs to be based on the individual’s abilities in specific skills related to driving.

Possible problems for those with autism when driving:

Motor coordination and planning difficulties

Attention modulation difficulties

Insistence on sameness or limited flexibility

Emotional dysregulation e.g. heightened anxiety

Limited ability to anticipate the actions and intentions of other drivers

Perceptual differences such as excessive attention to details rather than broader contextual factors

Driving was hard, you don’t realise what’s involved in in doing it. It looks easy but when it’s broken down into each section, it’s hard – control the wheel, brake and accelerator, have to put on blinkers, wipers, AC, looking out for cars, hazards, pedestrians.

That’s what I struggled with, dealing with all that at once and processing it all at the same time.

Matt B, 25

What Does The Research Tell Us:

It is limited, there are only a handful of studies:

One study of adult drivers (Daly et al, 2014) found that adult drivers with autism

Obtained their licences later

More likely to rate themselves as “poor drivers”

More likely to place restrictions on their driving e.g. avoiding traffic, night driving and highways.

The majority of parents rated single skills such as maintaining lane position, turning, speech control,
braking and use of turn signals as “not difficult to teach”

However, a majority of parents rated complex skills such as awareness of traffic (55%) and multi-tasking (65%) as
very difficult to teach

This same set of parents stated that the most helpful strategies included practice and repetition, teaching skills in small steps, providing verbal or visual scripts prior to starting out on a drive and being calm and patient

The least helpful strategy was showing emotionality such as raising their voice, getting upset or cringing and talking too much.

Tips For Parents

Your GP may require an individualised assessment from a driver trained assessor

Alternatively, you may opt to arrange for this kind of assessment yourself if you or your child are unsure about potential driving ability

Break down skills into small steps and teach to mastery – lots of repetition and practice

It may take longer to teach a person with autism to drive

Some people with autism may not be ready to learn to drive until they are somewhat older than their peers

Remain calm or utilise a professional driver trainer

Talk through or role play possible social situations related to driving e.g. what to do if pulled over by police, what to do in the event of an accident

Directly teach some of the non-verbal communication and other signals associated with driving e.g. drivers using flashing of lights to get your attention, hand signals or flashing lights to indicate that they are letting you in

Talk aloud as you are driving, explain what is happening on the road and what you are thinking and how you are planning ahead.